Treating neurologic-like symptoms by addressing cervical spine instability and disrupted blood flow into the brain – Caring Medical Florida (2024)

Ross Hauser, MD

Over the many years of helping people with cervical instability problems, we have come across a myriad of symptoms that seemingly go beyond the orthopedic, musculoskeletal, and neuropathic pain problems commonly associated with cervical spine disease, cervical spondylosis, “herniated disc,’ and cervical radiculopathy. While many patients can understand that cervical instability can cause problems with pinched nerves and pain and numbness that can extend down into the hands or even into the feet, they can have a lesser understanding that their cervical spine instability also pinches on arteries and disrupts, impedes and retards blood flow into the brain.

We often receive emails or phone calls from people who have been on a long medical journey. They just tell one story of a problem with brain fog or memory or concentration difficulties. They tell a story of many challenges. These people stories go something like this:

I am not getting enough oxygen

One common symptomatic theme people often discuss with us is a “sensation.” A sensation that they are not getting enough oxygen or that they suffer from oxygen deprivation or that they are oxygen-starved.

Sometimes I feel like I do not get enough oxygen.

• I have had a constant problem on my left side. I have chronic left side of the head headaches, my left ear is “always stuffed,” and feels filled, I can’t hear and it hurts, I have left shoulder pain and arm pain, throat pain, brain fog, and dizziness. Sometimes I feel like I do not get enough oxygen. I have cognitive disorders that some of my doctors thought were early-onset dementia. I have tremors that were thought to be Parkinson’s disease.

More symptoms but my brain scan show nothing. Yet I feel like I am suffocating.

• For many years I suffered from TMJ, then my TMJ was “spreading,” into other problems including tinnitus. Then the TMJ and tinnitus spread into problems with my eyesight and visual abnormalities, and dizziness, coordination, and balance problems. I have concentration problems, memory problems, and brain fog. It is as if I live in an alternative universe. The list of my problems is much longer and is being made worse because all my brain scans show that there is nothing wrong with my brain. Yet I feel like I am suffocating. Like I am starving for oxygen.

Not getting enough oxygen

• I was diagnosed with cervical radiculopathy. My symptoms are dizziness/vertigo, muscle spasms in my neck and suboccipital region, fatigue, neck cracking, visual disturbances (problems focusing), headaches, anxiety, digestive problems, often feel like not getting enough oxygen or blood flow to my head if I turn to my head to the left. My chiropractor suggests that my neck is “slightly off.”

To sleep properly and breathe normally

• My partner is suffering from severe neck pain for many years now. He would always mention the pinched nerve in his neck that’s causing him stress and anxiety or that is now causing difficulty sleeping and difficulty breathing feels like there’s not enough oxygen. He wants to sleep properly and breathe normally.

I can not get out of bed, if I stand up I start blacking out.

• I was diagnosed with idiopathic intracranial hypertension. I do have degenerative discs in my neck and my symptoms feel as if I am not getting enough blood or oxygen to my brain. I can not get out of bed, if I stand up I start blacking out.

I am yawning all day. Not sure if it’s due to lack of oxygen or blood flow but I always feel like my head is heavy and my ears are full

• It started with a neck/shoulder injury in the gym and postural problems. Then it progressed and become hard for me to digest my food. Everything was getting stuck in my esophagus. It has gotten to a point where I have to burp/belch to get food down into my stomach. I suffer from serious acid reflux. Everything I eat comes right back up especially if I am laying down or sitting a certain way. This causes inflammation and burning sensations in my body. I became lightheaded. I am very sensitive to loud noise and music. I feel like the entire left side of my body is weak. My left shoulder/neck is still an issue as I cannot work out in the gym without having pain. I am constantly cracking my neck to get relief. When I’m running, my left leg gives out on me. When I am driving or sitting down for more than 20 minutes, my left leg and feet go numb. I am yawning all day. Not sure if it’s due to lack of oxygen or blood flow but I always feel like my head is heavy and my ears are full. Lots of ringing in my ears. Sweating palms and underarms constantly. I have to avoid tight clothing because of pain and discomfort and headaches.

Strange neurological-like sensations

Over the course of almost three decades of being the doctor of ‘last resort,’ you would have thought I heard many a strange symptom. My staff will give me the main symptoms of the patient and it may go like this…

“The patient reports full-body buzzing almost every night now. His girlfriend notices him “buzzing” at night. The patient describes jolts of electricity, occurring primarily at night when sleeping. This makes him fearful of sleeping.”

I must admit the stranger the symptom or sensation the more I am intrigued to find the cause.

Here are some of the more common strange sensations people experience:

• The Hum – a persistent humming noise generally not audible to other people
• The Vibration – sometimes it is in an extremity like a train is going by and you are holding on to a metal railing; whereas other times it is in just one body part like a part of the leg, foot, or even the vagin*l or private parts.
• The high pitch ringing – called tinnitus. Again the person hears it by other people do not.
• The shakes – an internal trembling that a person feels but can not be seen by others.
• The rush–rushing sound in the inner ear, heard by the person, tends to correlate with a heartbeat. Sometimes can feel a vibration on the side of the head.
• The hiss – something heard by the person, typically when it is silent (no other noises).
• The click – can be in the ear, the neck, or jaw. When in the ear can be there quite frequently and is very disturbing.
• The leg jitters – also known as restless legs.
• The jerks – known as hypnic jerks, sudden contractions of big muscles that occur when a person is falling asleep or in a light sleep. Can affect sleep.
• The electric shock – and electric surge often from the neck down the spine but can go into the whole body or arm.
• The suffocation – a feeling that you can’t get enough air.
• The flutter – for a few seconds or longer the heart is beating way too fast and chest pounds.
• The simple numb – a part of the body goes numb, typically the feet.
• The paralyzing numbness – typically the lower half of the body feels extremely heavy and numb.
• The bobblehead – the head seems too heavy for the neck to carry it. The person wants to hold up their head with their hands or wear a cervical collar.
• The sweats – for no apparent reason there is whole body coldness or heat. It can occur in just one part of the extremities.
• The twitch – can occur anywhere, from the tongue to the eyelash to various limbs.
• The mini-seizures – whole body twitching and writhing.
• The dissociation – can be the person feels unattached to their body, mind, or just the emotions of life. The person can appear to have no empathy.
• The doom – the person feels like they are going to die.
• The tingles – often just periodic tingling sensations such as pins and needles in the extremities.
• The heat – the sudden onset of a very hot sensation on part of the whole body.
• The cold – intermittent cold sensation over some or all of the body
• The wetness – fluid or moist feeling over the skin.

The cause of most strange sensations or symptoms people feel can be put into one of two categories:

1. Tension affecting nerve impulse flow
2. Tension affecting tissue fluid flow

The Lhermitte sign

Many of the people we see at our center have previously been tested for suspicion of Multiple Sclerosis. One observation in these patients and something that may have been explained to you in greater detail if Multiple Sclerosis was suspected is the Lhermitte’s sign or sometimes referred to as Lhermitte’s phenomenon. Lhermitte’s sign is severe shooting pain, buzzing vibration, or tingling electric sensation stemming from the spine, often the neck, down the body, or into the arms with neck flexion. Dr. L’Hermitte described the sign in detail in his paper published in 1924.

Updated information in the National Center for Biotechnology Information publication STAT PEARLS (1) offers this explanation of the Lhermitte sign.

“Lhermitte’s sign (also known as Lhermitte’s phenomenon and the barber chair phenomenon) describes a transient sensation of an electric shock extending down the spine and/or extremities upon flexion of the neck, often a sequela of neurologic disease. (Although previously described in other papers the discovery for this phenomenon was) credited to (the French neurosurgeon) Jean Jaque Lhermitte through the seminal paper Les douleurs à type de décharge électrique consécutives à la flexion céphalique dans la sclérose en plaques: Un cas de forme sensitive de la sclérose multiple (Electric shock-like pain following head flexion in multiple sclerosis: A case of the sensory form of multiple sclerosis) (1924)

Lhermitte described it in multiple sclerosis and spinal cord diseases and further hypothesized it was a result of irritation and inflammation of the cord, likely in the posterior and lateral columns.

How cervical spine instability pinches on arteries and disrupts, impedes, and retards blood flow into the brain.

This is one of the great challenges that face cervical spine or cervical neck instability patients. The understanding of what treatment may help them the best and the controversies and confusion that surround these treatments. For some cervical spine surgery is the only way, for others, non-surgical treatments may be best. But what about patients whose symptoms are at best difficult to understand or difficult to determine what is causing them?

In our office, almost all the people who have upper cervical spine instability, who come in for our non-surgical treatments, have an amazing amount of brain fog, the inability to concentrate, anxiety, and depression. These are not the typical things that doctors look for in the neck. Yet, on the point of depression, this is not a chemical depression that can be managed with antidepressants. This is a cervical spine structural depression causing altered blood flow to the brain causing an altered brain function.

Throughout this article and related articles on our website, I discuss how cervical instability causes excessive motion of the spinal canal, whose primary job is to protect the spinal cord and nerve roots. When we first examine people as new patients, a message that we try to have them understand is that the word instability should draw a picture for them of the word destruction. Instability is causing the structure and function of the neck to deteriorate to the point of enough soft tissue and bone destruction that hardware and fusion surgery will be needed.

The complexity of symptoms and conditions that these people suffer from can be summed up as Cervical spine instability causing progressive destruction of the joint structures if not stopped. In the cervical spine, this means deterioration of the facet joints, ligaments, and discs.

When the soft tissue of the cervical spine is damaged, weakened, lax, loose, and degenerating, the bones of the neck wander around. With this wandering in the neck comes a narrowing of the intervertebral neural foramina space, the extent of which can reach the critical point at which the nerve is compressed (radiculopathy) or the spinal cord is compressed (myelopathy). This narrowing can also decrease or compress the flow of fluid in the blood supply to (arterial) and from (venous) and around (cerebrospinal flow) the spinal cord and nerve roots that they need for proper health and functioning. While the primary blood supply to the nervous system is in the front and back of the spinal cord in the spinal canal, some of that supply goes into the intervertebral foramen space. It is obvious then that everything already said about cervical radiculopathy and spinal stenosis with activity about the narrowing of the nerve root space and spinal cord space also applies to its nutritional fluid supply which involves arterial, venous, and cerebrospinal fluid flow.

What are we seeing in this image?

The internal carotid artery supplies blood to the brain. Where it sits in front of the transverse processes of the C1 (atlas) and C2 (axis) makes it vulnerable to compression by cervical spine instability if the C1 and C2 are unstable.

While there are many possible explanations for a positive L’Hermitte’s sign including spinal tumors, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Vitamin B12 deficiency, venereal disease, central nervous system Lyme Disease a much more common cause of a positive Lhermitte’s sign is cervical instability. The nerve impulses from the lower part of the body to the brain including sensation, vibration, tactile (skin), and temperature sensation travel up the posterior part of the spinal cord; whereas the nerve impulses from the brain go down to the lower half of the body to move it travel in the anterior part of the spinal cord.

Cervical instability can cause the various parts of the spinal cord to be “touched” by bone and give various sensations to distant parts of the body. Indeed, herniated discs, bone spurs, and osteophyte complexes can also ‘touch’ the spinal cord, likewise, causing distant shooting, vibrating, buzzing, and electric shock-like sensations.

If the nerve impulses get impeded or blocked for long periods of time, the unusual sensations occur more frequently and can become ‘permanent as in the numbness of peripheral neuropathy unless the underlying cause is treated. When there is long-term degeneration of the posterior column of the spinal cord one can get paresthesia’s of the legs, poor balance with walking, bowel and bladder problems, decrease position and vibratory sense in the lower extremities, numb feels in legs and feet, and when the anterior spinal cord corticospinal tracts degenerate muscle atrophy in the legs and feet can occur.

Dysesthesias

When people suffer from unusual dysesthesias, even with a lot of MRIs, blood tests, and many visits to various specialists, no underlying etiology is found let alone a definitive curative treatment. Various conditions may be suggested such as phantom vibration syndrome, temporal bone dehiscence, and others often the patient is left hopeless as the irritation sensation worsens. Dysethesia comes from the Greek word “dys” meaning difficult, impaired abnormal, or bad, and aesthesis which means sensation.

Recently a patient described internal tremors/shaking but no visible tremors, which occur at night while sleeping. This made him fearful of sleeping. Generally, dysesthesias or ‘unusual’ sensory symptoms are deemed functional sensory symptoms, meaning the nervous system is not working correctly but no damage or disease can be found. The reason it can not be found is that the nerve impulses are not structurally getting impeded all the time but intermittently when the body is moved in a certain way until there is too much tension on it to carry nerve impulses normally.

A typical patient experience with altered blood flow to the brain is suspected, caused by undiagnosed cervical spine/cervical neck instability.

Above we gave many examples of people who feel that they are oxygen deprived and it is more described as a sensation. Here we cite here from our article on Vertebrobasilar insufficiency – Hunter Bow Syndrome – Cervical neck instability a typical patient experience with defined altered blood flow to the brain as suspected cervical spine/cervical neck instability.

Turning their head to one side or another will make the patient dizzy or blur their vision or cause ringing in the ears

“The patient will tell us that they finally went to get help because for a long time, sometimes or every time he/she turned his/her head they would get dizzy, lightheaded and sometimes have to grab onto something because they felt like they were going to faint.During these episodes the patient would also experience fuzzy, blurry vision, ringing in the ears, and trouble with postural balance, even walking.

Drop Attacks

In more advanced situations and certainly more frightening to this patient is the “drop attack,” where they would suddenly and for seemingly no reason at all, fall to the ground and then get up as if nothing had happened a few seconds later. Of course to this patient “as if nothing happened,” is not what is going through their mind.

When they went to their primary care physician, the patient tells us, the doctor started to suspect that they, the patient, were having some sort of blockage of blood to the brain.

In the ruling out process, the physician started to look at atherosclerosis or the hardening of the arteries. This problem would be suspected in patients who were older, had diabetes, high blood pressure or hypertension, smoked, were obese, or led a very poor lifestyle devoid of activity or exercise. Most likely if you were in this risk group you would have received a referral to a vascular surgeon so they could take a look. However, this group of patients can suffer both atherosclerosis and vertebrobasilar insufficiency. In this group of patients, it would not take much by way of neck rotation compression to cut off blood flow to the brain in arteries that are internally clogged. Here surgeons may see more of an urgency to recommend decompression surgery.

The problems and challenges these problems create for patients are very broad. We are going to narrowly focus on research and clinical observation on how reduced blood flow to the brain can be caused by cervical neck instability, and then, redirect you to pages throughout this site on the symptoms and manifestations of these problems and how we treat them.

Understanding blood flow to the brain in patients

The main advance in the understanding of blood flow to the structures in the brain, head, face, and neck including the cranial arteries has been in our opinion extracranial and transcranial doppler ultrasound, primarily because this can be done in a physician’s office by the physician or his trained staff. A problem is, is that these tests are done with the patient in a standard or static position.

Most patients know the exact head position that gives them the symptoms of dizziness, “lack of oxygen to the brain,” and related problems. I can tell you that head position is almost always when they are standing or sitting upright, not when they are lying down, as when these vascular tests are almost always done.

For many years, I ordered these tests and wanted the technician to perform the test in the patient’s “vulnerable to symptoms” position, not in the lying down position. Our patients would relay to us that, unfortunately, their tests were not done the way I ordered them primarily because the technician simply tells the patient, “we don’t do the tests that way.”

What are we seeing in this image?

The cervical spine is intertwined with nerves and blood vessels. Cervical spine instability can compress or pinch the nerves and arteries causing a myriad of symptoms depending on how the patient moves his/her head.

Even when disruptions of blood flow were found on the test, the radiologist reading the test would call the test normal. Once when talking to a neurosurgeon colleague he explained “You have to learn to read the scans yourself. The radiologists don’t have experience in reading results from the craniocervical junction.” I was shocked actually when he told me this, but now I know it is true.

What is Nerve Tension?
Nerve tension is simply the tension on nerves. When the body is in ideal posture and moving normally, the nerves have little tension on them. When there is nearby joint instability or the effects of it, such as chronic muscle shortening, osteophyte complexes and abnormal locations of bones (subluxations), excessive compression, stretch, and tension occurs on the nerves altering their functioning.

Nerves typically run with the arteries and veins in the myofascial ‘space’ between the muscles. This neurovascular bundle (nerves, veins, arteries) stretch and move along with ‘normal’ muscle, bone, and body movement. Nerve impulses begin to be impeded when the nerve stretches greater than 6% of its length. There are many different conditions that put excessive tension on the nerves but by far and aware the main ones are: ‘permanent’ tightening or shortening of the muscles, instability of the nearby joints, excessive bony alignments or movements, and osteophyte complexes.

Joint instability leads to the conditions that cause myofascial restriction of the neurovascular bundle and ultimately nerve tension but joint instability itself can cause it. The nerves, veins, and arteries of the body are protected from harm because they run close to the bones. Often they are within a few millimeters of bone; thus, any excessive movement of the joints or bones can directly compress and stretch the nerves.

It should be noted that the symptoms are often different when the nervous tissue involved is in the peripheral nervous system versus the autonomic nervous system versus the central nervous system. Central nervous system nerve tension is typically from upper cervical instability and not only affects the cervical spinal cord but can involve the brainstem and brain. When the brainstem and/or brain nerve impulses are altered, the effects can be far-reaching and more dramatic.

The Same Process Is Involved in Fluid Flow Tension to and from Nervous Tissue

Nervous tissue, like the other tissues of the body, depends on nutrient flow into it and toxin flow out. If the flow of nutrient blood flow into the nerve is deficient, the nerve cell function will be impaired and likewise, if the neuron (nerve) cells can not get rid of waste products (toxins) out, it will swell and again nerve impulses will be abnormal. If the fluid flow into or out of individual neurons and collectively (nerves themselves) is compromised so is nerve function.

What are we seeing in this image? You need to flush the brain to get rid of neuron poop. The brain functions as a toilet to get rid of its poop.

This may be a whimsical way to describe this serious problem, but over the last few years, this idea of a brain not being able to flush away wastes has helped our patients as a simple, to the point understanding of their challenges.

The neurons, as described above, are big consumers of food fuel to create energy. Simply anything that eats a lot usually poops a lot. The brain naturally flushes this poop out with Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). If for whatever reason, the toilet tank does not fill, the toilet tank does not flush into the brain, the toilet clogs and causes overflow, the poop does not move out of the brain.

As stated in the captions of these images. Obstruction of the arteries and veins, both into and out of the brain, from cervical instability and wandering vertebrae compressing these vital structures, will ultimately result in an accumulation of Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in various parts of the brain including the frontal lobe. The neuron’s own waste will ultimately suffocate and drown them. This is one explanation for severe brain fog and mental decline in people with upper and lower cervical instability.

An understanding of Cerebrospinal fluid

The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a clear, colorless liquid that bathes the brain, spinal cord and nerve roots. While the primary function of CSF is to cushion the brain within the skull and serve as a shock absorber for the central nervous system, CSF also circulates nutrients and chemicals filtered from the blood and removes waste products from the brain and central nervous system. It occupies the subarachnoid space which is between the arachnoid mater and the pia mater, covering the brain and spinal cord. The CSF turns over or replenishes itself about 3 to 4 times per day. The CSF is constantly being reabsorbed through the venous system. About sixty percent of the CSF produced in the brain ends up in the spinal cord. The body attempts to keep the volume of CSF constant, as one of its primary functions is to equalize pressure in various brain compartments.

It is important to understand CSF circulation in the brain and central nervous system, which includes an understanding of the sites of CSF secretion, circulation and reabsorption. The CSF is often called the third circulation of the brain. It comes from arterial blood that has been filtered, and it leaves the brain through the venous system. So it is easy to see where the three circulations of the brain—arterial, venous and CSF—are all interconnected. A venous drainage blockage will eventually affect the CSF flow and arterial flow, and vice versa.

The CSF flow is actually tied to the heart beat cycle. Of interest is that CSF that leaves the brain on its way down to the spinal cord, but it must first pass through the tight spinal canal of the upper cervical spine and do likewise on its way up back to the brain. Therefore, the upper cervical spine is a critical link in the flow of CSF between the brain and the spinal cord. In upper cervical instability, the vertebral arteries which supply the brain and the vertebral veins that drain the brain during the upright posture can be affected. Upper cervical instability can also cause deformation or compression of the subarachnoid space and consequently affect CSF flow going into and out of the brain.

When one understands the anatomy at the craniocervical junction, it is easy to see how upper cervical instability could cause a blockage of CSF or arterial flow and/or venous drainage causing neurologic-like symptoms. Even if it is just the CSF that is increased, eventually this will lead to an increase in intracranial pressure which can cause reduced blood flow to the nervous tissue in the brain and spinal cord, potentially causing damage. When CSF flow is slowed, the brain fluid becomes toxic and that also over time can cause neurologic injury. Any of the neurological tracts or spinal segments can be affected when the normal arterial, venous and/or CSF flow is disrupted. If severe enough, the gray matter of the central nervous system can even be permanently damaged. Therefore, anyone with unusual neurological symptoms that go undiagnosed or unexplained by traditional medical means should consider a motion scan of the cervical spine looking for instability. Cervical instability is very reversible cause of many neurological symptoms and syndromes.

For more information please see my article Ross Hauser, MD Reviews Cervical Spine Instability and Potential Effects on Brain Physiology.

Whencervical myelopathy patients lay prone – everything calms down – a test where you are laying down is probably not a good test if you are looking for active blood flow problems

When it gets bad, I lay down and things calm down for me.

Often people in their pre-patient interview will tell us that their brain fog and related problems reduce in severity if they lay down. Simply they say things like:

• I have neck pain, cognitive problems, insomnia, headache, dizziness, fatigue, and brain fog. When it gets bad, I lay down and things calm down for me. The problem is I am now spending days laying in bed.

In this one sentence, we can get a clue that this patient may be having problems with a diagnosis because of the way they are getting testing. As stated above, a test where you are laying down is probably not a good test if you are looking for active blood flow problems.

Anesthetized patients, when positioned prone, experience hypotension and reduction in cardiac output.

Look at this research from March 2019 published in the Indian Journal of Anesthesia. (2) It comes in part from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in India.

Here are the summary points:

• Anesthetized patients, when positioned prone, experience hypotension and reduction in cardiac output.
• Associated autonomic dysfunction in cervical myelopathy patients predisposes them to hemodynamic (blood flow) changes.
• Thirty adult chronic cervical myelopathy patients, aged 18-65 years were observed for Heart rate, mean blood pressure, cardiac output, stroke volume, total peripheral resistance (the arteries resistance to blood flow), and stroke volume variation (“The change in the amount of blood ejected from the left ventricle into the aorta with each heartbeat.”)

Conclusion? Prone positions and non-prone positions create a different blood flow.

Notes:

• Cardiac output during the entire study period (prone position) remained stable
• Sixty percent of the patients experienced hypotension.
• At 15 and 20 minutes after prone positioning, mean blood pressure decreased, stroke volume increased (more blood pumped out of the hear), and heart rate and total peripheral resistance decreased. These changes were significant when compared to pre-prone position values. The number of levels of spinal cord compression positively correlated with the incidence of hypotension.

Conclusion? Prone positions and non-prone positions create a different blood flow.

Whether it is flexion/extension cervical x-rays, open mouth lateral flexion x-rays, flexion/extension MRI’s, MRI’s with thin slices to examine the ligaments of the craniocervical junction or doppler ultrasound of the head and neck it is best to have the tests in house, that is the only way to guarantee that the exam was done exactly what the patient needs and interpreted correctly.

This is why our testing and treatment center is equipped with x-ray diagnostics with digital motion x-ray because the traditional scans missed so many instabilities.

Transcranial Doppler & Extracranial Doppler Ultrasound

For this and other reasons, we offer to test with Transcranial Doppler & Extracranial Doppler Ultrasound. For the full article on this testing please visit our page: .

Here is a summary of that article and how this type of testing can show disruptions in blood flow to the brain and may help explain to patients why they feel that they are “not getting enough oxygen.”

• Transcranial doppler (TCD) can track real-time, moment-to-moment changes in blood flow to the brain. This allows for an assessment of blood flow changes to the brain and their impact on patient symptoms when the patient moves their head and creates changes in neck positioning. This includes monitoring the blood flow even while the patient walks into the office.

Understanding that blood flow may only be suppressed in certain positions of the neck

• If the blood flow is intermittently compromised, such as only when the neck is in certain positions, it will be difficult to catch and diagnose. To assess proper blood flow to the body’s most important nerves and nervous tissue (the brain), especially with head and neck motions, we perform transcranial doppler (TCD) and extracranial Doppler (ECD) ultrasound examinations.
• It is through dynamic transcranial doppler (TCD) and extracranial Doppler (ECD) ultrasound analysis that this decrease in blood supply can be documented with its root cause being compression of the arteries as they run through the cervical spine.

Pinpointing the position of the neck at the time of worse brain fog and other neurological type symptoms

Commonly, a person’s history will clearly indicate that their symptoms/conditions occur when they are upright and/or while they were moving their neck, versus when they are lying flat. Any symptom that is worsened with a specific neck position or movement most likely is due to cervical instability or another neck issue. Even symptoms such as blurry vision, changes in vision, tinnitus, vertigo, poor balance, brain fog, dystonia, tremors, decreased memory, swallowing difficulty, hearing impairment, and ear fullness, as well as any type of cranial nerve issue, can be from cervical instability. One of the troubling similarities amongst the wide array of symptoms is how many patients tell us that no one else has been able to find the cause. This may be from their previously tasting’s inability to “test,” while the person is in normal daily activity. Like reaching above their head for something, turning their head to the side, or walking among other daily routines. The reason people tell us that their brain scans show nothing is that the scans are showing nothing while the patient is lying prone during their test.